From “drone strikes” to issues with drones and airports, the whole subject of drones seems to be bad. So the idea of giving one as a gift to my son took some discussion.

Those of you with kids will understand, that any strikes against the gift were easily shot down by one important point that just could not be ignored… it was on his list.

A “wish list” made by a young child for Christmas consist of many big gifts, the ones you know they really want, and only so many of them are actually doable, so when they are, you do them.

Once the decision to buy him a drone for Christmas was made, (though as I just pointed out, that decision was actually made when he wrote it at the top of his “wish list” in big, capital letters) the only thing to decide was which one. There are lots of them. Most with cameras, though some of the smaller ones don’t have them. Most look like a sprinkler (lol, that’s for you long time readers). We talked about getting one of the smaller ones, not because they were cheaper, some under $40, but because it was his first drone and he is only 10. It might be good for him to start small.

But they looked too much like those air hog helicopters, and he’d gotten his share of those last Christmas and on his birthday. Plus there were some really good deals on some really nice ones.

So, we decided between 2 good ones. They were not top of the line, but they were nice. One had a lot of features like auto return, which seemed like a good feature, in hindsight it seems like a great feature. But the drone itself wasn’t as nice as the other one we were looking at possibly getting. It looked kinda cheap actually, so we went with the other one.

The drone we bought was pretty sweet. Fairly good-sized, with a good camera on it, and cool lights that flashed underneath. It was this present that our son wanted to take outside and play with shortly after that first round of present debauchery.

It was windy out, we had to get ready to head to grandmas for round 2, and the drone battery actually needed to be charged, but we took it out front and tried it out real quick, again any of you with kids understands.

It had enough charge for us to take a few turns. My son tried it, I tried it, and one of my older son tried it. Just some simple ups and downs at first and the thing took some hard landings. On one of the last times my youngest almost crashed it into a neighbor’s house. He sent it going and it went…

Luckily it didn’t crash into the house, but I told them everyone needed to read about the controls in the manual and understand them better before we take it out again. I also said we’ll have to take it to the park, so it doesn’t fly into someones back yard. Smart thinking, right? I thought so. After all, we all have seen the trouble that can bring.

I set the drone up to charge and the family collected up the mornings booty and my wife and I tried to get the living room back in to some kind of living room order. Ripped boxes and torn wrapping paper put into trash bags and put on the side of the house. Stockings, toys, candy, games, books, gadgets, and clothes all taken to the rooms they now belonged in. Round 1 was over, but the many still unwrapped presents around the other wise livable living room, were there to remind us, round 2 was waiting.

Those gifts (for the rest of the family that would soon gather at grandmas) needed to be packed into the trunk. Then we had to all get ready and drive over to grandma’s for dinner and round 2!

Just as all of this is done and we are getting ready to leave my wife says, “Well that’s that.”

“What?” I reply and ask at the same time.

“The drone’s gone” she answered.

What?!? What?!? What?!?

A few minutes before this my son (the young one) had come into my room and told me the drone was done charging and he wanted to try it again. I told him no, because we were getting ready to leave, we would take it out tomorrow (today) and try it out. I told him I had read the manual and I will teach him how to use it, but for now to put it back in its box. Any one with kids knows it was my mistake not to put it back in the box myself. And as I already wrote, just a few minutes later my wife came into the room saying what she said.

It turns out that my son took it to his older brother who thought it would be fine to fly it around one more time. So he took the transmitter (remote controller) and sent the drone into the sky.

From what I’m told the drone flew straight up and the wind caught it a little and it went out of sight over the neighbor’s house. They ran after it, but it was gone.

When I got out there they were knocking on neighbors doors and checking backyards. They checked every backyard around where they saw it go out of sight… nothing.

Here we are the day after Christmas and it has still not turned up. And they looked everywhere. They keep hoping someone is going to find it and they will get it back.

Of course, we know that isn’t how it works out sometimes. Someone may find it, think they were trying to spy on them and call the bomb squad. These things happen.

The whole incident makes my imagination run a little bit and I start to wonder… what if it’s connected by some Twilight Zone reality glitch.

My kids flew their Christmas drone up into the sky where it went through some kind of time barrier, worm hole in Las Vegas 2015 and came crashing down in Florida 2013, almost 3 years in the past, creating a time loop. These things happen.

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4 thoughts on “Revenge Of The Drone”

Wow! A man who reads the instructions?!? Zero, you are my freakin hero!

Time warp aside, I hope you find the drone. I don’t suggest you contact Murt for assistance.

My husband always says when the kids are out of college, he wants a Porsche. So one Christmas, I buy him a really nice remote control one. Less than a couple hours later, my son had crashed it into the garage wall.